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| Jason on Jaws |
We went to Mount Woodsen today with the intent of going to the Jaws area, about Mid mountain. The menu today we had Jaws (5.11a), Baby Robbins (5.10a), Cornflake (5.7), and Robbins Crack (5.10a).
I accidentally left one of my La Sportiva Mythos in the trunk of my car. I didn't even realize it until we were walking past Big Grunt. I had to hike all the way down the mountain and back up again to fetch them. I hiked for a solid 2.5 hours because of that stupid mistake. At the time, though, I was glad that I didn't accidentally drop one of my shoes along the road. At $140 a pair, that is most expensive single shoe I own. Not that its not worth it. Because it is. My climbing shoes are totally worth it.
I managed to catch back up with my group by the time they were setting up an anchor for Jaws (5.11a)
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| Jason setting up an anchor |
Meanwhile I took a cool photo of a fly.
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| Fly on Jaws |
Jaws is a perfect finger crack only about 15' tall. While a 5.11, its deceptively labeled a V1 boulder problem. I think those boulders label routes high only when they are hard AND complicated. While this route is hard, it is as straightforward as they come.
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| Nick on Jaws |
I have been working on perfecting my ringlock finger crack technique at the gym. I got lucky because the last time I did the gym ascent was last friday, two days ago. I was primed for this climb. I am extremely proud of myself because this is the first, possibly the only, 5.11 I've completed. I actually did the climb twice. The second time was because I needed photographic evidence.
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| Maria Conquering Jaws. |
Really, this is quite an accomplishment for me. I thought it would take years before I could do 5.11s outside. Sure, this doesn't mean I am doing 5.11's plural, but I didn't think that this day would come for several years
I couldn't do baby robbins because I was so tired from the finger crack ascent and because we didn't set up ropes and I thought it was too sketch to boulder. Bouldering is so hard on the body, and I have so many little pains here or there that I am worried even one more bouldering fall will cause me to shatter. I know that isn't how hard core climbers talk, but I am not in this game for the toughness.
We then went over to cornflake (5.7), which I've actually climbed in the past. I suppose this climb was really easy for my friends because most of them decided to high ball it. I call it high ball because it was really too high up for a bouldering problem. Patrick Stephan and I decided to lead it. I need more work in leading problems but I actually don't think this was the climb to do it. I want sport leads, not weird flakes where you feel super confident all the time.
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| Patrick on Cornflake (5.7) in the Jaws area. |
Then we went back to Robbins Crack (5.10a), which I couldn't believe, I was so tired at this point. My hands were raw from Baby Robbins and I had already basically done the Potato Chip Rock Hike twice that day. I felt like some pretty dangerous stuff was going on already when everybody started high balling Cornflake. Then Nick decided to High ball Robbins Crack. Why? I don't know why. There are so many philospheys to climbing, and this is definately one of them. Its just not mine.
Nick sure proved how tough he was, though.
And so did Jason.
It was a huge day for me. My first 5.11 ascent is one thing, but so was all that hiking. I also took a whipper right to the face, giving me battle scar that I'll take into the rest of my week, maybe the rest of my life. We'll see how it heals.
Maria
